Page 44 of A Brighter Yellow
“Hi,” said Ochre, stepping forward, “I’m Ochre. Although, maybe we could do this after we’re out of here?”
“We came to rescue you!” said Anna, wiping her eyes. “Ochre is, well, he’s part of the Pact. Remember, I told you about the DeSandre Pack?”
“Um, leaving?” asked Ochre. “Your door punching wasn’t exactly quiet.”
“His sister Azure is a witch!” said Anna. “So maybe you two can talk. She likes wolves too.” Anna was talking anxiously and pushing Charlie with tiny little shoves toward the door. “Ochre says she’s mated to Rafe DeSandre. And that means that she’s probably not a total bitch who won’t talk magic with you!” He suspected that Anna had no idea what she was saying, but was simply trying to get Charlie out the door.
“I just want to go home,” said Charlie.
“And that is what we’re going to do,” said Anna, with the faux cheerfulness of a pre-school teacher. “One trip home, coming up.”
“Great,” said Charlie, straightening up, “help me get my samples all together on the table.”
“We don’t have time for samples!” said Anna, sounding exasperated.
“We have to destroy this lab,” said Charlie, beginning to move around the room.
“Who cares about the lab!” said Anna, stamping her foot.
“You don’t understand what they’re working on,” said Charlie. “What they made me work on. That source sample you went after in Montana, they were bringing it here to be part of the spell.”
“I stole it,” said Anna. “We have it.”
Ochre looked back out into the hall. So far there wasn’t any signs of warlocks, but he felt like the clock was ticking.
“Good,” said Charlie, ignoring Anna and grabbing beakers and glass slides and bringing them to the front table. “But Brett decided that wouldn’t slow him down. He’s been feeding this one extra, so I could take samples off of it. I think I’ve got enough data to work on our cure now,” she added as an afterthought.
“That’s nice,” said Anna. She turned to look at Ochre as if trying to decide what to say. “I think you’re really close to making it work.” Anna had the awkward look she sometimes got when she wasn’t sure what she was about to say was a good idea or not. “But we should really get out of here! Do we need to do this?”
“Yes!” snapped Charlie. “We can’t let them have any of this research!”
“Wait. What? Samples for what?” asked Ochre, finally catching up with what Charlie had said. “Why would Brett need samples of the source? What’s he trying to do?”
“There’s some sort of spell from World War II. They weren’t able to deploy it fully back then due to some sort of shipwreck. They lost a bunch of data and half the rituals when a ship went down off the coast of Greece, but they know it works.”
“Fuck,” said Ochre.
Charlie and Anna looked at him.
“She’s talking about the Night of 1000 Deaths,” said Ochre. “That’s what happened in Greece. That’s the spell that wiped out every Supernatural for hundreds of miles around. There’s no magic in Greece anymore. None. It’s barren.”
Anna went pale. “Charlie, you’re not really working on a spell like that, are you?”
“It was either that or have Elliot come in and rape me repeatedly,” snapped Charlie. “So yeah, I’ve been working on it. I was trying to buy myself time to come up with an escape plan. Now help me get the samples together on the table.”
Ochre began grabbing equipment and shoving it onto the central table.
“Anna, rip those computers apart,” ordered Charlie, pointing. She paused, grabbing onto the edge of the table. Anna, who had been heading for the computers, turned back, but Ochre made it to Charlie first, grabbing her elbow and holding her upright. “They made me do the offering,” Charlie said, looking up at Ochre. “Three days in a row.”
Anna growled.
“The computers, Anna,” said Charlie. “Please.”
Anna seized the first one and ripped open the metal cover. Metal bits went flying, and Ochre saw that Anna’s claws were fully deployed. He’d seen Liam and Rafe do minor shifts while in human form before, but he hadn’t realized how powerful that in-between state could be.
“I don’t suppose any of you have some matches?” asked Charlie, looking at the pile. “I have a really good spell for starting fires, but right now, I couldn’t start a fire in a gasoline shop.” She laughed, but it was hollow.
“That’s OK,” said Anna, dumping her computer bits onto the table and waving for Ochre. He stepped closer, and she spun him around and reached in his backpack. “I have C-4.”
